From this hour I ordain myself loos’d of limits and imaginary lines, Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,
Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.

Gear

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Everyday, every moment, we have the choice to take actions that foster or destroy, that build community or tear them apart, that conserve beauty or spread ugliness. Every moment of our lives we are faced with the choice to participate in killing this Planet and all that calls it home, or to stand up and fight against those that do.

“There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings ... Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change ... There was a strange stillness ... The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.”

Thursday, June 17, 2010

It is not often that I can truly say that i have recently undertaken something of such epic proportions, of mind bending beauty, of humanity shifting consequences as I can today. Along with my first ever touring buddy, we ventured into the wilds of the wild Vermont. A place where many have been forgotten, a place of hidden spots that speak of days of yore, of prehistoric times. A few still staggering dinosaurs and land walking whales roam these parts. We toured the Northeast Kingdom.

Leaving from the hamlet of Burlington, we headed north to St. Albans where they announce your right to cross the street by blowing an air horn and scaring you into running for your life, hence crossing the street. Being that small town Vermont is small town Vermont, there isn't much more to say. From here, we followed the Missaquoia Valley rail trail by not following it to Enosburg where we got coffee and heard the tale of a bank being robbed over 4 times in 4 years. Nice. Finishing up the rail trail (over 26 miles) we got to Richmond. Richmond has a sunny side and then a not as nice sunny side. Stopping at the 2nd best bakery in town we were told of a farm where we could camp (never found it) and also told that we will be encountering a mountain climb as unbeknown to us, we had to circumvent Jay mountain, a huge skiing resort. We decided to tackle the impossible climb of impossibility. Nearly an hour and a half later we hit the pass, and freewheeled what may be one of the best downhills to grace this wonderful world. Nearly 10 minutes of eye tearing amazement as we bombed down the

side of this mountain to our resting place for the day, Paddie's Snack Shack in North Troy.

We camped next to the train tracks which anywhere else would never have produced a train, but for us did. A rumbling freight train. Twice. Early the next morning, awaking to fresh blue skies, twittering birds of all sounds and sizes, we packed camp and headed off for a day full of mountain lakes and true Kingdom beauty. We cruised by nearly 6 lakes of various sizes and shapes of blue, but all numbed us from their crucial beauty. As we wound out way around the Kingdom we decided to make a path towards Glover where the infamous Bread & Puppet farm/theater/museum/etc is located. After finding our way to their uphill aboded, we spent the late afternoon and evening in the farm and woods, and enjoyed a shared dinner and saw some blighty potatoes getting burned before calling it a night and hitting the hay in our wooded campsite. A wonderful night of uninterrupted sleep followed and we woke up warm and refreshed the next morning. Yay!!!

Day 3 saw us cover over 40 miles barely even pedaling as we cruised south from Glover, through the greentown of Hardwick and into the grand Capital of the republic, Montpelier. We spent sometime wandering the gold lined streets and slowly falling asleep. And so, after another 40 miles with a bewildering amount of stupid car traffic and some light drizzle we pulled back into Burlington with sugar coated visions of the Kingdom still dancing in our heads.

However shelter’d this port and however calm these waters we must not anchor here,

However welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are permitted to receive it but a little while.

10

Allons! the inducements shall be greater,

We will sail pathless and wild seas,

We will go where winds blow, waves dash, and the Yankee clipper speeds by under full sail.

Allons! with power, liberty, the earth, the elements,

Health, defiance, gayety, self-esteem, curiosity;

Allons! from all formules!

From your formules, O bat-eyed and materialistic priests.

The stale cadaver blocks up the passage—the burial waits no longer.

Allons! yet take warning!

He traveling with me needs the best blood, thews, endurance,

None may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health,

Come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself,

Only those may come who come in sweet and determin’d bodies,

No diseas’d person, no rum-drinker or venereal taint is permitted here.

(I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes,

We convince by our presence.)

11

Listen! I will be honest with you,

I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes,

These are the days that must happen to you:

You shall not heap up what is call’d riches,

You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,

You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d, you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call’d by an irresistible call to depart,

You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you,

What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,

You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands toward you.

12

Allons! after the great Companions, and to belong to them!

They too are on the road—they are the swift and majestic men—they are the greatest women,

Enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas,

Sailors of many a ship, walkers of many a mile of land,

Habituès of many distant countries, habituès of far-distant dwellings,

Trusters of men and women, observers of cities, solitary toilers,

Pausers and contemplators of tufts, blossoms, shells of the shore,

Dancers at wedding-dances, kissers of brides, tender helpers of children, bearers of children,

Soldiers of revolts, standers by gaping graves, lowerers-down of coffins,

Journeyers over consecutive seasons, over the years, the curious years each emerging from that which preceded it,

Journeyers as with companions, namely their own diverse phases,

Forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days,

Journeyers gayly with their own youth, journeyers with their bearded and well-grain’d manhood,

Journeyers with their womanhood, ample, unsurpass’d, content,

Journeyers with their own sublime old age of manhood or womanhood,

Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe,

Old age, flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.

13

Allons! to that which is endless as it was beginningless,

To undergo much, tramps of days, rests of nights,

To merge all in the travel they tend to, and the days and nights they tend to,

Again to merge them in the start of superior journeys,

To see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it,

To conceive no time, however distant, but what you may reach it and pass it,

To look up or down no road but it stretches and waits for you, however long but it stretches and waits for you,

To see no being, not God’s or any, but you also go thither,

To see no possession but you may possess it, enjoying all without labor or purchase, abstracting the feast yet not abstracting one particle of it,

To take the best of the farmer’s farm and the rich man’s elegant villa, and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple, and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens,

To take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through,

To carry buildings and streets with you afterward wherever you go,

To gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them, to gather the love out of their hearts,

To take your lovers on the road with you, for all that you leave them behind you,

To know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls.

All parts away for the progress of souls,

All religion, all solid things, arts, governments—all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe, falls into niches and corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the universe.

Of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe, all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance.